Robust Quarter for Google

Google  said its revenues in the first quarter rose 31% year-on-year to 13.97 billion US dollars, boosted by the inclusion of Motorola's handset business. On a like-for-like basis, Google revenues rose 22% to 12.95 billion dollars.  Google's "Other" revenues, which include sales from its Google Play app store, rose by 150% year-on-year to 1.05 billion dollars, more than Motorola Mobile managed to generate. source: Google statement

América Móvil Sees Slight Uptick

América Móvil said its revenues rose 6.1% year-on-year in the first quarter at constant exchange rates to 193 billion Mexian pesos (15.69 billion US dollars), with service revenues growing 4.6% led by mobile data (25.6% growth) and by PayTV  (20.6% growth).  Revenue rose 5.8% in the previous quarter.

The pan Latin-America group said it finished March with 328.2 million connections, 7.4% more than in the first quarter of last year. This figure comprises 262.9 million wireless subscribers, 30.3 million landlines, 17.8 million broadband accesses and 17.2 million PayTV clients. source: América Móvil statement

Nokia Sees Another Sharp Sales Fall

Nokia said that its net sales fell 21% year-on-year in constant currencies in the first quarter to 5.85 billion euros, as sales in its devices and services division fell 33%. Nokia Siemens Networks' revenues declined 4%.

Nokia said it shipped 11.1 million smartphones in the quarter consisting of 5 million Asha full touch smartphones, 5.6 million Lumia smartphones (running Windows Phone) and 0.5 million Symbian smartphones. Nokia said: "In the second quarter 2013, supported by the wider availability of recently announced Lumia products, Nokia expects the sequential growth in Lumia unit volumes to be higher than the 27% sequential growth in the first quarter 2013." source: Nokia statement

Wireless and Fibre Lift Verizon

Verizon Communications said its revenue rose 4.2% year-on-year in the first quarter to 29.4 billion US dollars, driven by a 9% uplift in wireless revenues and a 15% rise in fibre-related revenues. Verizon said that 54% of its wireless data traffic is now on its LTE network, which now covers 287 million people. source: Verizon presentation

Intel Cuts Capital Spending Plans

Intel said it expects its full-year capital spending to be 12 billion US dollars, plus or minus 500 million dollars, down 1 billion from its prior expectations. However, it still expects a low single-digit percentage increase in revenues in 2013. "Amidst market softness, Intel performed well in the first quarter and I'm excited about what lies ahead for the company," said Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO. "We shipped our next generation PC microprocessors, introduced a new family of products for micro-servers and will ship our new tablet and smartphone microprocessors early this quarter. We are working with our customers to introduce innovative new products across multiple operating systems. The transition to 14nm technology this year will significantly increase the value provided by Intel architecture and process technology for our customers and in the marketplace." source: Intel statement

Google Welcomes Facebook Home

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has welcomed Facebook Home, the software that puts the social network on the home screen and lock screen of smartphones running Google's Android software, according to TechCrunch.  "[Facebook] read the rules and they adhered to them. If you look at what Facebook did they maintained full application compatibility. I think it’s a tremendous endorsement of the platform and what it can do,” he is reported to have said at a conference. source: TechCrunch article

Facebook Tries to Take Over the Home Screen

Facebook unveiled its Facebook Home application which will feed status updates from the social network on to the lock screen and home screen of some Android phones. It said this feature, called Cover Feed, "is for those in-between moments ­like waiting in line at the grocery store or between classes ­when you want to see what's going on in your world." Facebook Home also enables the use of Facebook messenger and/or SMS while using other apps. 

Facebook said "Home will be available as a free download from the Google Play Store starting April 12. Home works on the HTC One X, HTC One X+, Samsung GALAXY S III and Samsung GALAXY Note II. Home will also work on the forthcoming HTC One and Samsung GALAXY S4, and on more devices in the coming months."

It added that "Home will also be available pre-installed on phones through the Facebook Home Program. HTC and AT&T are the first companies working together to deliver a phone with Home. It's called the HTC First and it goes on sale April 12. We designed Home to be the next version of Facebook. But we also wanted to do something more. We wanted to reimagine the way we all use computing devices to make us more connected and bring us closer to the people we care about." source: Facebook statement

BlackBerry Ships Six Million Smartphones

BlackBerry said its revenue in the quarter ending March 2nd was approximately 2.7 billion U.S. dollars, down 36% year-on-year.  It said it shipped six million smartphones in the quarter, including one million running its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, compared with 11.1 million handsets in the equivalent quarter a year ago.

BlackBerry said its global subscriber base at the end of the quarter was approximately 76 million, slightly down from 77 million a year earlier.  The smartphone maker added that it "will be increasing its marketing investment in the first quarter of fiscal 2014 in support of the global launch of BlackBerry 10." source: BlackBerry statement